Display datetime model property as Short date time string

Question

I'm new with MVC2, and am having a formatting problem. I have a DateTime property in my Employee model that I would like displayed with the Short Date Time.

This however, does not appear to be the correct method.

1 <div class="editor-field">
2    <%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.DateRequested.ToShortDateString()) %>
3    <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.DateRequested) %>
4 </div>

Line 2 throws this exception:

Templates can be used only with field access, property access, single-dimension array index, or single-parameter custom indexer expressions.

What is the correct way to handle formatting in mvc?

Answer 1

Try decorating your view model property with the [DisplayFormat] attribute:

[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:d}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]
public DateTime DateRequested { get; set; };

and in your view use the Html.EditorFor helper:

<div class="editor-field">
    <%: Html.EditorFor(model => model.DateRequested) %>
    <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.DateRequested) %>
</div>

or if you insist on using textbox helper (don't know why would you but anyway here's how):

<div class="editor-field">
    <%: Html.TextBox("DateRequested", Model.DateRequested.ToShortDateString()) %>
    <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.DateRequested) %>
</div>

Answer 2

If you want to stick with an html helper method, try this:

public static MvcHtmlString TextBoxDateTime<TModel>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> helper,
             Expression<Func<TModel, DateTime>> expression, int tabIndex = 1)
    {
        var meta = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, helper.ViewData);
        var propertyName = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);

        var input = new TagBuilder("input");
        input.MergeAttribute("id",
                             helper.AttributeEncode(helper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldId(propertyName)));
        input.MergeAttribute("name",
                             helper.AttributeEncode(
                                 helper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(propertyName)));
        input.MergeAttribute("value", ((DateTime)meta.Model).ToShortDateString());
        input.MergeAttribute("type", "text");
        input.MergeAttribute("class", "text cal");
        input.MergeAttribute("tabindex", tabIndex.ToString());
        input.MergeAttributes(helper.GetUnobtrusiveValidationAttributes(ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression), meta));
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(input.ToString());
    }